Danny Yaroslavski of the Velocity Garage shows Premier Kathleen Wynne his children’s game called LightBot as Reza Moridi, Minister of Research and Innovation, looks on. Wynne recently toured the VeloCity space following a $300-million venture capital announcement. Velocity startups have raised $100 million in funding.

A new $300 million venture capital partnership that will help local startups was recently launched at the Tannery.

Premier Kathleen Wynne was on hand to announce the launch, which is a joint program with the federal government and private businesses.

Hongwei Liu, co-founder and CEO of startup MappedIn, who benefitted from startup funds from VeloCity Venture Fund, said the region is the perfect place for start-ups because of the innovative environment and available talent.

With a fund for venture capital, developers and innovators can spend more time on their ideas and less time fundraising. “Raising money has always been one of the hardest challenges and I think harder here than other places in the world,” he said.

The fund, named the Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund, had its first closing at $217 million. It could reach $300 million with additional private investments.

The provincial and federal governments promised one dollar for every two put into the fund, up to $50 million each. To date, the provincial and federal governments have contributed $36.3 million each.

Even though Wynne touted the fund as a job creator, she wouldn’t say just how many would be created from the investment.

“As these businesses commercialize and as they connect with clients, that’s when the jobs are created. This fund helps them get started. Without the venture capital, they don’t start, and so we absolutely need that seed money in order for them to begin,” she said.

The new fund comes after the success of the province’s Ontario Venture Capital fund, which was launched in 2008. According to the province, that fund has helped retain and create 1,500 jobs and has attracted

$872 million in private sector capital.

The partnership with private businesses was seen as controversial. “We proved our detractors wrong,” said Wynne. “The fund proved to be an incredible success.”

Cambridge MP Gary Goodyear made the venture capital announcement on behalf of the federal government. “It provides an important opportunity for ideas conceived here in Canada to be brought to life for the benefit of Canadians. This is an idea whose time has come . . . We obviously have the people, we have the resources, we certainly have the ideas,” he said.